ACCESSIBILITY OF UG IN THE ACQUISITION OF WORD ORDER PARAMETER
Dilsah KALAY
Kütahya Dumlupinar University
Ms. Dilsah KALAY is currently an instructor at Kutahya Dumlupinar University, Turkey and simultaneously a doctoral student at Eskisehir Anadolu University, Turkey. Born in Kutahya, Turkey, Ms. Kalay was educated at Kutahya Anatolian Teachers' Training High School, Turkey and graduated with Bachelors Degree in Foreign Languages Education in Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey. Following her Bachelors' degree, Ms. Kalay worked at Izmir Katip Celebi University for a while and started her profession at Kutahya Dumlupinar University as a lecturer. During her career, Ms. Kalay preferred to continue her education in Anadolu University at department of Foreign Languages with an integrated doctoral program.
Abstract
There has been an ongoing debate on the accessibility of Universal Grammar in second language acquisition and thus the linguists examining different aspects of SLA present differing perspectives on accessibility of UG in... [ view full abstract ]
There has been an ongoing debate on the accessibility of Universal Grammar in second language acquisition and thus the linguists examining different aspects of SLA present differing perspectives on accessibility of UG in second language acquisition, which indicates a need for further analysis. Hence, in the present study, the acquisition of English constituent order structures by beginner level prep. school students has been investigated. Two tests - a proficiency test and a structure test composed of three tasks: a 30-item grammaticality judgment task, a translation task and a task of ordering the constituents in English - have been administered to 57 participants selected according to convenience sampling procedures. The findings have revealed that UG is accessible in the acquisition of word order parameter in second language acquisition. However, since the subjects are beginner level students, mother tongue interference cannot be disregarded completely. Overall, it can be deduced that soon after learners start learning another language, they proceed to assign and use the parameter values of the target language, which may be accepted as an indicator of UG access in second language acquisition.
Key Words: Universal Grammar, SLA, Constituent Order Parameter, L1 Interference
Summary
The present study investigates the acquisition of English constituent order structures by beginner level prep. school students. According to the findings, UG is accessible; however as expected with beginner level learners, L1... [ view full abstract ]
The present study investigates the acquisition of English constituent order structures by beginner level prep. school students. According to the findings, UG is accessible; however as expected with beginner level learners, L1 interference is inevitable. Overall, soon after starting learning another language, it seems clear that parameter resetting takes place.
Authors
-
Dilsah KALAY
(Kütahya Dumlupinar University)
Topic Area
Language Systems: Vocabulary and Grammar
Session
OS-4D » Concurrent 4-D (13:45 - Saturday, 15th April, ÖFB Özger Arnas)
Presentation Files
The presenter has not uploaded any presentation files.
